Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Dyngus Day, sort of the Polish equivalent to St. Patrick's, is always the Monday after Easter (in fact, it's sometimes called Wet Monday and features a traditional soaking of girls by boys with buckets of water, squirt guns, etc. Don't ask). So it's April 21 this year and one group is planning a full-out celebration at the Red Fez Club (on Lake Wylie), with polka band and Polish food. Organizer Christina Newcomb wants it to become an annual event: "It's high time considering our growing Polish and Northeastern demographics, coupled with our serious lack of ethnic celebrations." The event has a Facebook page (from which the above photo, which features the Polish Heritage Dancers of Western New York), here. (On a smaller scale, Lebowski's in Dilworth does an annual Dyngus Day, with Polish offerings.)

Chef Vivian Howard of Kinston's The Chef & the Farmer restaurant has won a Peabody for her show; food editor Kathleen Purvis has more here.

The New York Times ponders how restaurants can be political flash points here, including a restaurateur in Clemson who posted a sign saying "If you are such a loser that you feel a need to carry a gun with you when you go out, I do not want your business." (He, in turn, is pondering whether he should have just used an official state sign instead -- and the story notes his Yelp star rating went from four to one.) Sean Brock, a high-profile chef in Charleston (McCrady's, Husk) tells the Times: "People are really looking to you for answers and guidance and your opinion on things... Twenty or 30 years ago you were just a guy who made eggs Benedict.”

Followers

About this blog

Tapas to tacos, foie gras to fries, Helen Schwab has written about food in and around Charlotte for more than 20 years. Her related experience includes traveling (pizza in Naples to pizza in New York), waitressing (she understands about tipping from both sides), journalism (a B.S. from Northwestern University), and cooking at home, the less said about which the better.